Pocket Full of Piranha in Quicksand

Why were Generation X kids terrified of quicksand despite almost nobody ever encountering it? What made us believe swallowing gum would remain in our stomachs for seven years? Nicole and Heather dive deep into the irrational childhood fears that shaped our generation—and how most turned out to be completely overblown.

Quicksand, once a staple of adventure films, required such specific conditions it's practically non-existent in real life. The hosts explore how this trope exploded in popularity from Lawrence of Arabia through Gilligan's Island and beyond, despite the physical impossibility of being fully swallowed by sand. Similarly, the Bermuda Triangle's fearsome reputation stemmed from pre-GPS navigation difficulties and intense storm patterns rather than supernatural forces.

The conversation weaves between lighthearted debunking and nostalgic personal stories, including harrowing family boating adventures during thunderstorms that left lasting impressions. Remember being warned against showering during storms? Turns out lightning strikes through plumbing are extraordinarily rare. And that knuckle-cracking habit your parents swore would give you arthritis? Medical science says it might actually release tension and endorphins.

Not all childhood warnings were baseless—"stop, drop and roll" remains valuable fire safety education, though it likely convinced many kids that catching fire was an inevitable part of growing up. The episode highlights how these shared anxieties shaped Gen X psychology, from media influences to well-meaning but scientifically dubious parental advice.

What childhood fear still haunts your adult nightmares? Share your story with us on social media or email [e-mail]. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for weekly Gen X nostalgia, stories, and laughs that'll transport you back to simpler times when we thought everything was trying to kill us.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Two best friends.
We're talking the past, frommistakes to arcades.
We're having a blast.
Teenage dreams, neon screens,it was all rad and no one knew
me Like you know.
It's like whatever.
Together forever, we're nevergonna sever Laughing, sharing
our stories.
Clever, we'll take you back.
It's like whatever.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to Like Whatever, a podcast for, by and
about Gen X.
I'm Nicole and this is my BFF,heather.
Hello, alright, so I have tostart this week with some
disturbing news I heard on NPR.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Uh-oh.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm upset, so Sesame Street is in jeopardy.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes.
So let me read this from NPRthe Sesame Workshop will
downsize significantly,announced President and CEO
Sherry Rollins-Weston onWednesday in a note to staff.
The layoffs came about twomonths after Mac said it would
stop distributing Sesame Streetepisodes after 2025, and within

(01:14):
a day of more than 200 of itsemployees asked for Sesame
Workshop to recognize that theywant to form a union.
Casts like puppeteers, crew andwriters had already unionized,
said the statement in the OPEIULocal 153.
So, yeah, they want to unionize.
I think this is probably goingahead, but I think it's a

(01:36):
10-year contract they had withHBO and now they want to drop it
and it doesn't sound likethere's a whole lot of interest.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's a shame.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
It breaks my heart.
So, amid the changing media andfunding landscape, we have made
the difficult decision toreduce the size of our
organization.
A Sesame Workshop spokespersonwrote in an email to NPR Last
December.
Warner Brothers Discovery,which owns Max All right, so
it's Warner Brothers Discoverythat owns it announced that

(02:07):
after 10 years, it was notrenewing its deal to fund new
episodes of the iconicchildren's series.
At the time, the corporationsaid its priorities had shifted
and that Sesame Street was notas core to our strategy.
I don't know.
I feel like we've all learnedto read from Sesame Street.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I don't know.
I feel like we've all learnedto read from Sesame Street.
Yeah, but times are differentnow.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm going to die on this hill.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I know it's sad but I feel like maybe with YouTube
and all that.
I mean for sure, definitely allthat.
I mean, yeah for sure,definitely.
Do kids even watch that?
Well, first of all, there's 276streaming things that you have
to.
You know once they said thiswhole baloney of dropping cable

(02:54):
because it's cheaper is bullshitI was a sucker.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I fell for it.
I did too.
I need to just go back to cable, it's probably cheaper.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
It is because now, because not only do you have to
pay for your internet, right,which is ridiculous, yes, but
then you got to buy every singlesolitary other thing, because
nobody runs the same thing onevery, so you have 27
subscriptions to things thatcost way more than cable ever
did, right.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
And I'm paying like six bucks a month for a landline
that I haven't used in like 20years it is a racket.
But wrapping up, sesame WareWorkshop said the layoffs are
necessary to ensure that theworkshop is poised to continue
to deliver on its mission foryears to come.
But that does not make thehuman impact of these reductions

(03:39):
any less painful.
Max is currently airing the55th season of Sesame Street.
Sesame Workshop has notannounced a new distributor but
said production on its 56thseason will begin next month.
So I guess however many theyget filmed before the contract
runs out will be the end.
So yeah, that made me sad.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
It is sad, but I just feel like I mean I don't know,
because I don't have kids, but Ijust feel like probably that's
not how they learn anymore.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
You're probably right .
But, and I guess that show washuge to us, so me as a mom, like
my kids, definitely watched it.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Plus with graphics now on things and AI.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Who wants to watch Muppets and old people, exactly,
muppets are just not doing itfor these kids, the whole Muppet
thing just grew back out ofnostalgia.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I mean you know those Muppet movies they made a
little while ago.
It was probably just us in thetheater.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's just for us yeah .

Speaker 1 (04:43):
So I mean, I just I don't know.
It is sad, but I just feel likethat's not the way kids learn
anymore.
Fair enough, they don't havethe attention span for that.
I still count by fives the sameway as Sesame Street, and I
count to 12 that way.
Yeah, it is Well.

(05:03):
Did you hear that they changedthe alphabet song?
No, they changed.
It's not LMNOP anymore.
They didn't change the alphabet, it's still intact.
But instead of doing the LMNOPlike that, it's a different
cadence now, so they're not allstrung together like that.
I mean, wasn't that the bestpart, like kids not being able

(05:26):
to say it.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, that was the fun part.
Yeah, Even if you could say itlike singing through that part.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
I forget.
If it was my niece or my nephewwould just say M-N-M-N-M.
But yeah, they changed it andthen it's not won't you sing
Next time?
Won't you sing next time?
Won't you sing with me?
It's something else at the end,like didn't I do a good job
doing the alphabet?
That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
That's probably what it is.
Here's a trophy.
You said the alphabet.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yay, you know the alphabet.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Whatever, so also this weekend was my birthday it
was your birthday.
I had such a fun weekend.
I want my birthday to be on asaturday every year I don't
think it works that way it'svery convenient though.
So on friday night a friendcame over and we got pizza, and

(06:18):
she brought chocolate cupcakesfrom my favorite bakery, and
then, um tuesday, my husband gotup and went back to that same
favorite bakery at 6 30 in themorning and got the cinnamon
rolls right out of the oven ohyeah, they were amazing.
Um, and then we went to a taylorswift themed drag show awesome,

(06:39):
yeah, it was cute, like theywere clearly new to their art um
, but I was happy to support thecommunity, like whatever it was
.
Funny it was, it was fun andthe food was good.
It was brunch um, I danced alot excellent, I know, it's my
favorite, I know.

(07:00):
And then we came back home fora little bit and hung out with
the puppy who's doing awesome.
And then my daughters took meout to dinner.
We went for Mexican.
It was delicious, I bet.
And then we came back here andmy husband had baked me a cake.
I don't think he's ever bakedme a cake before it was really

(07:22):
weird, I know, and it wasdelicious.
He did a really good job.
Yep Hung out with the kids andthen Sunday I went to the winery
with some of my favorite people, and me and my one friend
brought subs and chips andcookies and they brought pizza
and wings and soda oh my goshman, what winery Harvestridge in

(07:44):
Marriedalearydale?
yep, and it was like packedthere, and so they sang happy
birthday to me.
And then across the way, thatwas somebody else's birthday, so
they all sang happy birthdayover there but my happy birthday
was better because I was withblack folks, so I got the happy
birthday like the good one wherewe were rocking.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
The other ones were like happy birthday, yeah, yeah,
so mine was better you know whohas a, the, a really good
vineyard um salted vines infrankfurt, because I don't I'm
not a drinker I don't say do youdrink wine at all?
I don't care for wine, I don't.

(08:22):
I like sangria because I likeit sweet.
It has to be super sweet.
I can drink Moscato and I candrink sangria.
So Salted Vines has the sangriaslushy?
Yes, and during COVID you couldget them to go, because I don't

(08:43):
drink that so much.
So I am a lightweight when itcomes to drinking and it's
better to have them at home thanto, but yeah, they have.
Really, it's highly recommend.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
And then my husband pulled a real Gen X move on the
way to the brunch because he waslike, do you have the tickets?
Yes, I have my phone.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Oh, they don't have tickets anymore.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
No, and I miss that too.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, I remember going to like Ticketmaster.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, and like what do you collect now?
Nothing.
Screenshots, Right, exactlythat you're never going to print
out, you're never going to seeit again.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
That's the thing with taking photos Once you die and
your phone gets whatever that'sit.
Those pictures aren't goinganywhere.
Nobody is downloading yourpictures off the internet.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
It's not happening, nope.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Nope, nope.
Well, thanks For thatdo-me-a-clue.
Oh look, earlier, she tried toput me in the septic tank.
I did.
She deserves it.
It's a long story.
I come up missing.
It's because I'm in the septictank.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Well, now I can't put you in the septic tank, Because
I don't want to be in theseptic tank.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Feed me to the pigs?

Speaker 2 (10:05):
I don't have pigs, I have a septic tank.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
There's a pig farm around here somewhere.
I have no doubt we're in.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Delaware.
There has to be somewhere,exactly so anything.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
I just wanted to say, like that Gene Hackman stuff is
just so sad.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
It's so sad.
It's so sad and it shows howtwisted our brains are and how
much shit that we watch on tv.
Because her dying first neveronce occurred to me, not not a
single time did I think.
Maybe she died and he justcouldn't take care of himself.
She was so much younger, soyeah, but she was still 67,
which is young, yeah, but that'scertainly old enough to pass
away.
And she was sick.
But, like, why was no onechecking on?

Speaker 1 (10:44):
them.
That's what I thought too theother day.
I was like why was nobodychecking on them?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
yeah, like you know you probably knew your mom was
sick.
If she was that sick, it waslike three weeks.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, she was dead for a week.
He was dead for a week, so Iguess that's two weeks, but yep,
I don't know and it's, it'sjust sad, all I know I just
imagine him like I know, justnot knowing what's going on or
where he is, where he is and Iguess he just he didn't eat
anything and that's what I wasthinking when they said his
heart.
I was like dehydration sets inquick well, they said he wasn't

(11:18):
dehydrated, so he was.
He was drinking something, butI guess he well, I mean, if he
didn't have any, if she didn'thave anything prepared, right
you know he's and uh, they wereprobably medications he was
supposed to be taking.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, heart, probably heart medications and
that's really sad, I just I meanwhat a horrible, after such a
amazing life, to go out that wayI know and that and that's just
it, like that's the alzheimer'sthing.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Just it's so cruel it is.
It is for everybody, foreverybody.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
It's just a shame yep , and then also the dog that was
in the kennel I heard it hadjust had surgery.
Yes, so that's why it was inthe kennel and it starved, it
starved yes, and it's just so itis all completely normal to
explain, but that's why the doorwas open.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I had.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
They had a junkie grandson that broke in and I was
like, oh, she had it.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
I had all kinds of theories but that's why the door
was open.
He probably was going in andout of the door at some point.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
He's probably looking for her yeah, I never shut it.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, if it was like her bathroom or something.
I think the problem was is whenthey, straight out the gate,
told you that those pills werespread everywhere.
That was just immediatelyyou're thinking yeah yep was oh
well right right, no, murder,suicide, or.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I'm just glad they'll stop telling us it wasn't
carbon monoxide.
We're like, okay, no shit, youtold us that within like 30
minutes of finding out.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Okay we got it, we got it everyone has tested it,
it's not there I did just wantto take one second and tell you
that I did want to give a shoutout to the podcast.
Free nights and weekends.
Yes, it is also a gen x podcastand it's really good and you
should give it a listen yeah, Iagree.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
That's all yep, all right.
So, um, before we get into thisweek's um, we're gonna add the
social information at thebeginning of the podcast.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I totally forgot, so that you actually she just
literally told me this I did 10minutes.
Well, it's over 12 minutesbecause we're at almost 13
minutes, so like 15 minutes agoshe told me and I just forgot
that fucking fast.
So this we're on all thesocials at like whatever pod, um
.
Uh, youtube is like whateverpod, and the l and the w are um

(13:41):
capitalized, and is it all oneword, or is it it's all one word
?

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Okay, that might get you there.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, I don't know that might get you.
Try that.
If not, I don't know what totell you.
It's there, google it.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Or just find us somewhere else.
Yeah, I need to add the YouTubelink to this.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I was just going to say All the other socials, so
that people, yeah, duh, we needto put that on there.
I'll do that.
It's on the Tickety Talk.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
No.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yes, yes, it does link it to the Tickety Talk.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Okay, good, yeah, there you go.
Yeah, all right, there we go.
Let's fuck around and find outabout gen x fears.
I'm excited namely irrationalones that we were raised on.
I mean um my um sources camefrom historycom, christ and pop

(14:35):
culturecom well, that is mybiggest fear jesus is coming
back for me scary.
You did everything all wrong.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know trust me and mcgill college.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Um, all right, so the first one I wanted to get to
was quicksand because, like I,still have an irrational fear of
quicksand I live a block fromthe beach my whole life and I
have always been afraid ofquicksand and it's a thing it is
, but it is extremely rare, allright, so you've never been on
the beach and had your feetswept out from under you.
Yes, I have all right, despitebeing realistically unimaginable

(15:16):
for adults today.
One of the things thatterrified gen x's kids that
turned out to be no big deal wasfinding themselves battling
quicksand.
Whether it was a children'sbook, a wise tale from a
neighborhood friend or a latenight action movie on TV, many
Gen X kids were convinced thatthe biggest worry they'd face in
adulthood was getting stuck insand.
Yeah, less than a handful ofpeople actually find themselves

(15:41):
in an unsafe situation withquicksand.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Well, you know you have.
First of all, I think quicksandonly grows next to trees with
vines.
That has been my experience inlooking at the TV.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Well, that would make sense, because it comes up
later that sand, water, clay andsalt, so sandy and clay soil
can go together.
Water, I don't know where thesalt would come from.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
But it always sounds like they would always throw
somebody a vine to get you outof it.
Yeah, so I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Right?
Well, I'm going to blow allyour theories out of the water
Great.
If you were born sometimebetween the 50s and the 80s, you
know the trope well.
The hero trudges confidentlythrough the wilderness, whip in
hand, smirk on face, ready totake on whatever nature throws
at him.
Then, without warning, the veryground gives way beneath his
feet.
He reaches for a branch, a vine, anything, but it's no use.

(16:39):
He's been sucked down down intothe earth.
In a matter of minutes he'llhave disappeared and his quest
will all be for naught.
Quicksand is exceptionally rare, requiring a rather unusual
confluence of ingredients whatyou're saying is I'm not going
to get stuck I mean, it's notimpossible, okay.

(17:04):
So yes, the ingredients sand,water, clay and salt have to mix
at the exact right ratio.
So it's not even having thosethings together, they have to be
exactly right.
To the extent that it exists,it's not all that dangerous.
You might get stuck in thestuff, but you won't sink in
over your head.
As a mixture of water and rock,quicksand is far too dense.

(17:24):
You can try as hard as you wantto sink in a substance denser
than you, but it's not going tohappen.
Some of us are denser thanothers.
While quicksand can and doeskill people from time to time,
it never does so by swallowingthem up, never to be seen again.
The best it can hope to do ishold you in place until you die

(17:46):
from dehydration or exposure,one of the slowest and least
dramatic deaths possible I mean,that's pretty fucking terrible
way to go it is.
I'd rather just sink down andget right I would rather be
crushed with quicksand.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
You know what I think it is is.
I was from when Atreyu theSwamp of Sadness.
I perpetually live in the Swampof Sadness, but, man, I think
that might be where.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
That's a lot of Gen X trauma that fucking movie, that
scene, that whole movie, thatscene is the Rock man.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
I love the Rock man.
I fucking love that movie.
I know Never ending story, incase you.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, if you haven't seen it in a while, watch it.
If quicksand is really so dull,though, how did it become such
a popular trope in cinema, andhow did it disappear just as
quickly?
So, in the first place, theso-called age of exploration,
also also known as the Age ofEvil, colonialism lit up the
public imagination with the ideathat there were endless

(18:49):
possibilities for what could befound in the world, everything
from sea monsters to fountainsof youth, to headless people
with faces on their chest, whichI don't remember that one.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
No me either, but hold on.
Can I just tell you thatyesterday I was on the Tickety
Talk.
Was it yesterday or was it thismorning, I don't remember.
It was within the last 24 hoursand apparently this is straight
insane.
Apparently, on the TikTok thenew conspiracy I don't even know

(19:18):
what the hell it is Some guyput out a video that his friend
put out, this video that shewent to a hollywood elite party
and they were eating hold onmermaid and when she was leaving
she saw a whole cooler full ofmermaids.

(19:38):
I bet this bitch actuallybelieves it.
you would be shocked at how manypeople I'm hoping that they're
all just really doing a good jobof being sarcastic, but some of
them I'm not so sure I mean.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Like if that ever happened at a party, you would
ever be allowed to speak of that.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Well, that's what they said.
They said she had to sign anNDA, so why was she a supposedly
?
I don't know.
I couldn't find the originalvideo, but there was like a
whole bunch of people talkingabout it and I was like how,
first of all?
I was like how did I get tothis part of tiktok?

Speaker 2 (20:17):
that people were eating mermaids.
What were you looking?

Speaker 1 (20:18):
I don't even know, like I.
I don't know how, I don't know,but I guess the elite, the
Hollywood elite, are now eatingmermaids.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Okay Well, at least they're not eating babies
anymore.
They could be eating Wellthey're fit and cool, or they
had to be baby mermaids Great.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Even worse One hell of a Yeti.
You can put a whole mermaid inthere, a couple of them too uh.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Compared to some of the wilder tales from explorers,
the concept of sand that suckedyou down to your doom was
barely even a stretch.
The colonial era obviouslypredates the invention of cinema
by a century or two, but thelate 19th century saw a surge of
the trope in literature, to thepoint that even respectable

(21:07):
authors like Bram Stoker andArthur Conan Doyle, who wrote
House of Baskervilles, wasmaking use of quicksand.
The second explanation forquicksand's popularity is mainly
how easily it inserts itselfinto an adventure adjacent film.

(21:27):
The introduction of Quicksandinto the hero's path provides
some much needed excitement in adragging second act with very
little exposition required andwith very little chance of
confusing the average viewer.
After all, there are few thingsmore universal than the need to
not get swallowed by the earthand not die.

(21:48):
For some of you, I guess that'sthe plan.
I am scared of sinkholes, butand that's what's up like that's
for real and like that's our.
That's why biden put money intothe infrastructure, because all
those caves, all that mining,all that, there was a sinkhole
in in ocean city, at the bottomof the bridge, a couple months

(22:09):
ago that sinkholes, no joke yeah, um, let's see my, my, one of
my favorite podcasts, myfavorite murder they do.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Um, she has a one of the hosts.
Uh, karen does a bonus episodeon Saturdays called Sinkhole
Saturdays and she ratessinkholes.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
That sounds terrifying.
It also didn't hurt that thebudget for a quicksand sequence
is basically nothing.
Get yourself a big sandbox andhave your actors pretend to sink
in it.
To sink in it.
The sudden surge in the troopspopularity stemmed from its
inclusion in the multi Oscarwinning film Lawrence of Arabia,
in which TE Lawrence's servantboy Dodd is shown getting

(22:53):
swallowed up by the stuff.
The historical Dodd actuallydied of hypothermia.
From there it is just a matterof time before quicksand was
popping up, and everything fromAdam West's Batman series to
Gilligan's Island, to Get Smart,to one of my favorites, blazing
Saddles.
By the time 1987 cult classicthe Princess Bride came out, it

(23:16):
was enough of a cliche that thescript could have a joke about
lightning sand in it, andaudiences got it.
For anyone keeping score athome, though, the quick in
quicksand isn't actually areference to speed.
It comes from medieval usage ofthe word quick to mean living
as in the living, or as in thequick and the dead.
In other words, quicksand meansliving sand, which is way more

(23:39):
awesome than fast sand, that'strue, yeah, living sand.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
No thanks, it just sounds like I, I mean, I'm still
scared of it, I do rememberbeing really scared of but a.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
I grew up around sand yeah, that is true, and I was
just scared of everythingbecause I had a lot of anxiety.
So, and the the bay.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Like I told you before about my little boating
adventures, when you got out ofand had to walk it the bay, like
I told you before about mylittle boating adventures, when
you got out and had to walk itthe bay has, like Mud yeah, A
foot of guck on the bottom.
It is sticky and you sink downin it and then when you go to
pull, it's.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
It's like a suction cup it is.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
It's a struggle.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
No, you're right.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
But I didn't die.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
No Obvi, all right, sadly.
The next one I wanted to talkabout because this was another
huge fear of mine, although Idon't know why, I was never
anywhere near it but the BermudaTriangle the first time I went
to the Bahamas I was like uh-oh,but I didn't disappear.

(24:43):
No, and I, as an adult, havebeen fascinated with it and have
tried to like and like.
The fear was so deep and realthat I tried to find proof, like
in facts and stuff andeverything you watch is just
theories and stuff and it's veryunsatisfying for me.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Well, because most of the planes that disappeared and
either got caught in a storm orsomething like that, ran out of
fuel.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
I mean, you're going over a very large body of water
and we were not really with alot of hurricanes.
We weren't a lot of, we weren'tmaster aircraft especially that
area.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
There's like a like a hurricane highway right yep,
exactly.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
So, yeah, there, and it's very deep.
So, yeah, you go down themiddle of nowhere, you're going
to sink to the bottom and you'renot going to be seen again.
Like it's not that crazy.
That is true story, but it'snot nearly as exciting.
Um, all right.
So it's not uncommon for people, regardless of age, to fear the
things they don't understand.
According to a study from theJournal of Anxiety Disorders,

(25:42):
while these irrational andsometimes rational fears evolve
over time, characterizingpeople's coping mechanisms and
self-soothing behaviors intoadulthood, it's not completely
surprising that things like theBermuda Triangle or quicksand
were some of the things thatterrified Gen X as kids.
That turned out to be no bigdeal.
As they grew up, they were ableto replace fear-driven

(26:04):
narratives and stories withfactual evidence and research.
Hence me trying to find ananswer.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And then you also replace those fears with like
things that are real, that couldactually happen in your life,
like murders, murder, uh, yourmortgage, car insurance, like
these things became way moreimportant than whether you're
gonna get sucked into quicksandyeah, yeah, I'm still scared of

(26:33):
it, though.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Um, alongside the feelings of autonomy, that
adulthood presents a reminderthat you don't have to go to the
bermuda triangle if you don'twant to.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
That's true that's the same thing with sharks, like
everybody's freaking out about.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Just don't go in the water, yeah, yeah you literally
can't get eaten by a shark ifyou're not in the water.
Exactly, they cannot come onland and get you.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
It's very easy to avoid getting bitten by a shark.
It's very easy.
Just don't go in the water.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, yep, like you can't die bungee jumping if you
don't bungee jump.
No, that's true, you cannot.
These terrifying thoughts arenow nothing more than funny
fleeting memories.
I beg to differ with that.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
She still won't go to the Bermuda.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Triangle.
I won't go to the BermudaTriangle and I won't step in
quicksand.
A source of fascination forsailors, researchers and
crackpots alike.
The Bermuda Triangle is aroughly 500,000 square mile
expanse of the Atlantic Oceanlocated off the coast of Florida
.
Descriptions of its bordersvary, but most accounts cite the
three points of the triangle asMiami, Puerto Rico and the

(27:34):
island of Bermuda.
Reports of bizarre activitiesin the region date back to the
days of Christopher Columbus,who reported unusual compass
activity while traveling throughit en route to the New World.
But the triangle would laterearn a reputation as a dead zone
for planes and ships after astring of unexplained
disappearances in the 20thcentury.
And that's another thing to me.

(27:55):
Um, that I think is a hugefactor here is we don't
understand the whole world.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
What's the earth and the, the frequencies and the
poles, and we think we know, wethink we know how all that shit
works but, and that you know, weknow more about space than we
do the oceans oh, yeah, yeah,exactly.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
So it would make sense that maybe things that
work close to land.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Well, and that's just .
You know, they didn't havesatellites in the 40s and 50s.
They didn't have satellites,they didn't have the radar,
wasn't as good as it is now,probably only went out to a
certain area.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
This part's probably in you know a dead zone between
you know Bermuda and I mean, howoften do you hit a dead zone
with your phone?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Well, exactly, Now I'm down the street, like I do
every day in my firstneighborhood.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
So it is all very easily explained.
But man, it sure was terrifyingback then.
But carrying on, in 1945, fiveUS Navy aircraft known as Flight
19 got lost, advantaged in theTriangle during a training
mission, While the pilots mostlikely ran out of fuel and
crashed into the sea.
No trace of the planes or their14 crew members were ever found
.
Another famous mystery dates to1963, when the tanker ship SS

(29:14):
Marine Sulphur Queen sank nearKey West Florida.
Life preservers and other itemswere later discovered drifting
in the water, but the exactcause of the disaster remains
unknown and the wreck has neverbeen recovered.
So some life preservers floatedup.
They're supposed to.
You know, you remember whenthat plane, malaysia plane went.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Man, I have all kinds of conspiracy theories, I tell
you I have been obsessed withthat, like that there are some
good documentaries on that.
Yeah, it's crazy that I stillcannot fathom that a plane could
go missing like that.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
I have to say and it's been a while since I've
watched it, but I remember thatmy biggest theory was that it
was the Americans.
I think there was something onthere that was getting rerouted
like that plane was being usedfor foul play, right.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
I don't know.
I think it was a pilot, pilotsuicide.
I think it's somewhere in theindian ocean.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
That's what I think I'm gonna have to rewatch it now
.
Yeah, all right.
Writers like charles burlitzhelped popularize the bermuda
triangle mystery in the 1960sand 1970s, and its treacherous
reputation has been chalked upto everything from intergalactic
portals definitely what it istime for Texas to paranormal

(30:43):
phenomena and even the lost cityof Atlantis.
That is a big ass city.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
If it goes all the way in that, that's a lot,
that's more than a city thatwould be like another state
continent I've always beenfascinated with atlantis too.
I think I buy into that becauseit's pretty, but I mean it's
like a fantasy land, so like Ihad a theory a very long time
ago about dinosaurs.

(31:08):
So what?
What will be left of us in 100million years, especially now?
Like, yes, plastic and all that, but all these buildings won't
be there and so all people willfind is like a McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
They're going to find piles of trash.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Piles of trash, right ?
So how do we know that thedinosaurs didn't have houses and
we just they're just gone?
Yeah, that's my theory.
Dinosaurs were much more.
They might have had cell phones, we don't know.
They might have talked.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Had jobs.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
I've seen them show dinosaur.
You are not the mama.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
That's one of my dad's favorite shows.
My sister loves that show.
But despite the hysteria,government organizations and
shipping companies don't showthe triangle on any official
maps and groups ranging from theUS Coast Guard and the Global
Insurance Outfit Lloyds ofLondon maintain that the region
doesn't have an unusually highrate of maritime disasters.

(32:12):
That the region doesn't have anunusually high rate of maritime
disasters.
Other skeptics note that thetriangle sits in an area famous
for rogue waves and storms, andthey blame any disappearances on
extreme ocean depths and theeffects of the gulf stream,
which can combine to quicklyerase all evidence of plane
crashes and ship.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
I mean, that's the real fear.
Y'all should be worried aboutfucking rogue waves.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
That is insane oh my god, like I'm very comfortable
on the water, like I grew up onboats out in the ocean, all that
, but the thought of a roguewave, just watching, like those
shows where those waves comecrashing down on the front of
like the fishing boats and stufflike the north sea.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Have you ever watched any of the north sea videos?
Oh my god, no, thank you.
I know it's scary, but thoserogue waves like every time.
I was out every time.
Okay, I've been on cruise shipsthat go to the bahamas.
So you're down in that generalvicinity and at night when it's
dark out there, and like thewhole ship is lit up, right, but

(33:13):
it's just the the chance of arogue wave just knocking the
shit out of that boat, like itwill just knock it, and then
they all look top heavy anyway.
Yeah, they look like theyshouldn't be allowed.
Well, didn't?

Speaker 2 (33:27):
that happen a few days ago and because, like I
remember seeing a cruise shipjust in the past week that
tipped and all the pools emptiedout oh really, they were in the
kitchen and all the stuff wassliding.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I have been on some rough cruises to the Bahamas,
like in December it gets prettyrough, and there was a couple of
them where one we couldn't dockoh my gosh.
So we had to take an extra dayat sea because they couldn't.
They couldn't dock um, and itwas.
It was rolling pretty good.
I also have, you know, grown upon boats, so that doesn't

(34:02):
bother me um, because I've beenon the freaking ferry when I've
been, like the when they havebeen like this is the last ferry
going, because this is weshouldn't even be running this
one.
I have been on that ferry and ithas been a 75 minutes of pure
terror so but yeah, it's it'scrazy so our next one is not

(34:27):
necessary.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well, yeah, it did make us fearful, but it is
actually legit this is mybiggest, biggest fear I'm not
going to lie this is 100%.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I am scared to death of this.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
All right, so it's stop drop and roll.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I'm so afraid of a fire I am.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, yeah, fire.
That would be a terrible way.
It's a terrible way to go, yeah, and even worse, to live
through, I would think.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I would think Let me tell you.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Like when 90% of your body has been no, just let it
go.
Yeah, just please unplug me.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, shoot me with some morphine, whatever.
I'm not interested in livingthrough that.
Yeah, yeah, I don't have enoughwill to live through all that.
I do have will to live and Idon't want to do that.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
That sounds excruciatingly painful.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
I can't even take it when I burn my fingers I know I
bitch about it for like twoweeks Me too While many Gen X
kids in the 70s and 80s.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
And that is funny that you're scared of fire and
burning because you worked as acook for so long.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
That's why probably because I got burnt so many damn
times.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
But you think you build immunity.
I mean, you do.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
I would rather be burnt than cut.
Oh really, oh yeah, 100%, Ihate being cut.
Yeah, cuts do hurt.
Cuts hurt for a while.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Like a burn, and they don't stop bleeding either.
Yeah, and you get any littlething in them at least with a
burn like it crusts over.
So the skin.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
You throw some ice on it and move on All right.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
So while many Gen X kids in the 70s and 80s were
taught about fire safety throughstop, drop and roll, the
National Fire ProtectionAssociation report suggests that
there's actually other risksoutside of ones that Gen X kids
were taught to fear and learnabout growing up.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Well, probably, here's the thing, though
Probably you were more apt tocatch on fire back in the 80s
because everything was made outof flammable shit like polyester
, and every adult in your lifewas smoking.
Yes, and your clothes weremeant and your house was made of
like brick, so the chances ofit burning all the way down it

(36:45):
got slim, but all that plasticand shit, yeah, you're and your
bed was made of flammableness.
Everything was flammable.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Your pajamas were flammable.
I think it was until my kidswere little that they were like
oh these pajamas won't catch onfire.
Oh thanks, good job.
The phrase stop, drop and rollbecame popular during the 1970s
and the 1980s as part of firesafety education for Generation
X.
It was taught to children tohelp them respond appropriately

(37:17):
in case of a fire emergency,encouraging them to stop, drop
to the ground and roll toextinguish the flames.
This phrase became a culturalreference point for that
generation, symbolizing theimportance of fire safety
awareness.
So, like I said, while that wasjust a short blurb and it was a
fear as a kid because by doingthat you were sure you were

(37:39):
going to catch on fire at somepoint you were definitely going
to need to know how to do this,definitely had to know how to
stop drop and roll, and it wasvery important.
But it is good, like you seepeople on TV like they'll catch
on fire and they're running andtheir arms are flailing and
you're like stop, drop and rollyeah.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
I know they have fire safety now, well, here's the
other thing that I sleep throughfire alarms I always have.
We had one when I was growingup.
A pipe broke in the house andit set the fire alarm off and it
was literally two inches awayfrom my bedroom and I did not

(38:18):
hear it.
I sleep the sleep of the deadIn our apartment.
Now, literally everything setsthe fire alarm off and I have
slept through it and we live inone room, so that is one of my.
I will burn to death because Iwill not wake up.
Yeah, then I know they do stillhave fire safety because they

(38:42):
have, like the fire.
Oh, yeah, the fire engine comesin the dog.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Isn't there some dog?

Speaker 1 (38:48):
in a costume maybe, oh yeah, the dalmatian, but I
don't know does it have a name?
I don't know I'm sure it has aname, of course, probably spot
or I don't know fire engineflamer I don't, I don't, I just
I think it was a good thing theytaught us.
Oh, 100, that was yeah but itdidn't instill fear in us so

(39:13):
pretty much the 80s was justabout scaring the shit out of us
.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Exactly Again.
We say crawl under your desk incase a nuclear bomb falls,
right because that's helpful,then you can stop drop and roll
when you're on fire From thenuclear bomb, from the nuclear
fallout.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Stop drop and roll when your skin fluffs off.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, yeah, because it's not fire it's radiation.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Maybe that's how you get radiation off of you too
yeah, oh yeah, you might be ontosomething well, because if you
stop drop and roll and you'rebeing radiated, I imagine you're
just gonna roll that top layerof skin right off of you.
There you go, it's likeshedding your skin.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, okay, looks like a snake.
All right, so the next one isswallowing gum, and I remember
truly believing.
It stayed in my stomach forseven years.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I did too.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
I never really swallowed gum, yeah, and we had
no reason to believe otherwisebecause our parents told us so
do you know what my mom and dadtold my sister?

Speaker 1 (40:15):
oh, god.
I know she believed it so whenmy, my aunt was pregnant with
vinnie maybe no, it was nick,because she had she had to be
smarter than that at 10, butfive okay so so she was present
pregnant and I have a feelingthis is something she still

(40:36):
might believe today, so that myaunt ate a watermelon seed?

Speaker 2 (40:39):
yes, and that's why her belly was so big I
accidentally swallowed like anorange seed once and I was so
scared like and I could picturethe plant growing up out of my
stomach up through my throat didyou ever hear about that guy
that had like a pine treegrowing in his lungs?

Speaker 1 (40:56):
That's insane.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
I was jealous of that .
That would be cool.
That would be cool.
So afraid of letting gum sit intheir stomachs.
For decades, many Gen X kidsrefused to swallow gum and grew
terrified over the myth ofeating their candy.
But today, research debunksthat myth as one of the things
that terrified Gen X kids.
That turned out to be no bigdeal.

(41:18):
Swallowing gum isn't truly thatbig of a danger for kids or
adults, according togastroenterologist Dr Elizabeth
Rijan, as long as it's notaconstant and regular occurrence.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
So we're talking about the obsessive people Don't
swallow a lot of gum.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
So while large amounts of swallowed gum can
cause digestive issues in youngkids, there's no reason to seek
out a trash can in certainsituations or crash out over
having to swallow a single piece.
Chewing gum will not stay inyour intestines for seven years.
It will not.
While gum is not metabolized,broken down or absorbed, like

(41:57):
most food, it doesn't sit inyour colon for the better part
of a decade.
Intuitively, the idea isbelievable.
Gum is sticky and hard toscrape off the bottom of school
desks, so the idea that it couldbecome lodged into some corner
of your digestive tract is notentirely implausible.
However, it is worthremembering that we actually eat

(42:18):
a lot of things that we cannotdigest.
However, some things simplycan't be broken down because
neither we nor the bacteria inour colon have the enzymes to
metabolize it.
Fiber is a prime example.
Insoluble dietary fiber passesundigested through the digestive
tract and draws water into thebowels through osmosis.
You're getting a little sciencelesson, I see that.

(42:41):
This softens the stool and canease constipation.
Other foods like nuts, seeds,beans and corn also go
undigested and simply passthrough you within a matter of
hours.
The average transit timethrough your gastrointestinal
tract is probably a little over24 hours, and it did have tips
in there.
If you'd really like to knowhow fast your tract is, eat some

(43:03):
corn and then pay attention.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
I don't care that much, but I already know my
gastrointestinal tract hasmassive problems.
You're not worried about alittle corn.
It's not working very well atall.
My if I ate gum it might sit inthere for seven years, just
because or maybe it'll patch ahole up somewhere it might, we

(43:26):
should ask my doctor what if Ieat a lot of gum?

Speaker 2 (43:29):
you should definitely ask your doctor if I eat a lot
of gum and swallow it.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Will that patch up some holes in there?
I don't think it will.
All right well, and you knowwhat else.
Here's the thing, though.
It doesn't stick to your mouth,so why in the hell would it
stick to your intestines?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
it's an excellent point yeah, yeah, it's even
slimier down there.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, yeah, all right gotcha, what's that problem
solved?
Yeah, there we go.
Hey, just don't swallow gum.
How about yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:03):
like why, yeah, you keep the paper and you spit in
the paper when you're done withit.
I mean you're not.
You all are not in schoolanymore you're not running
around outside and you ran outof gum and nobody's stopping you
from chewing gum, where yougotta hide it and then swallow
it suddenly.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
That's not a thing, guys.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
You're all right, you're adults yep, yep, you can
spit your gum out, but if you doswallow it, it'll just come out
in 24 hours so you're good timeit see what happens.
All right, so I just have twomore um of these um, and this
one really hit home to mebecause I all right, so it's
Showering Door in a Thunderstorm.
Oh, I can't wait for this one.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
My mother.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, so that's what I want to say.
Like I grew up out in thecountry I mean, when it was
summertime we didn't have airconditioning you left the
windows open.
You came home and your wholehouse was covered in green
fertilizer because the cropduster had come to do all the
fields around you Right.
And so you had to clean all thetoxic fertilizer out of the
house.
So I'm talking country and wehad the-.

(45:21):
We had mosquito that would comeand spray for mosquitoes with
the crop duster, yep, and thenwe had the really tall antenna,
like the one that went way upthere, and the little rotary
thing, so you'd have to turn it.
read real quick.
While it's possible to bestruck by lightning, both
walking around outside orstanding in the shower, the odds
of it truly happening are closeto nothing, according to the

(45:42):
National Weather Service.
Despite most children beingafraid of thunder during a storm
, many Gen X kids were taught tofear lightning with parents who
were concerned about ittraveling through the pipes
while taking a shower or a bath.
So, yes, the risk is there.
As with many of the otherthings that terrified Gen X's
kids, that turned out to be nobig deal, but the true reality

(46:05):
of having to come face to facewith these fears is nothing to
spend all day worrying about.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
So bye, my mom.
You can't talk on the phone ina thunderstorm, I might remember
still you still?
Oh, if you call her, she will.
First of all, she don't liketalking on the phone anymore at
all, but she will text you andbe like it is lightning, like
okay, it's not hooked toanything anymore.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Mom I mean, my husband does freak out and
charge his phone every time acloud pops up.
He's like, just in case, I'mlike all right, we've lived here
three years and never lostpower.
But do you boo?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
so my mother made then in turn made my sister
deathly afraid of thunderstorms.
Still to this day.
She, she tries really hard tonot make her kids right, but she
, my sister, moved out of thehouse when she was 23 or 24
years old.
Up until that point she stillgot in bed with my mom and dad

(47:01):
when it thunderstormed.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Wow, she is that afraid like that's so sad
because thunderstorms are soawesome I love them.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
My dad and I would sit out when my mom would freak
the fuck out get, get in here,get in this house.
Why are you out there?
The lightning's getting close,oh my gosh, especially because

(47:35):
we lived on on the bay and theywould spend the summers.
And he had a boat.
My grandfather had a boat.
He loved this boat like thisboat was the pride and joy of
his life.
So he would take us out fishingon the boat, flounder fishing.
We went crabbing.
I love flounder fishing Me too.
So one time we were out and oneof those storms that just kick

(47:59):
up out of nowhere rolls up andit starts raining and lightning
and we're out in the middle ofthe bay.
Really a bad situation.
It is a bad situation.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
I've been in that situation where I'm watching the
storm as the whoever's driving.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I'm like it came up and we couldn't outrun it.
Yeah, so it was raining so hardmy poor grandfather couldn't
see.
I bet he was terrified, his,because his glad handed out
having you guys.
Yeah, take his glasses off andshe was freaking out like she
just kept yelling mickey, mickey, get us.
And you know he's doingeverything he can, but she's

(48:36):
screaming at him.
So this traumatized my sister.
He ended up running that boat uponto the to the shore the bay
shore, and the people that livedin that trailer part, too, were
waiting for us when they got,because they knew, knew we were
out.
He ran and I will never forget,like her screaming for one but

(48:59):
that didn't affect me becauseshe yelled at him all the time,
but him running his boat up onthe sand was like, oh my God,
like.
When he did that, I thought ohmy.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
God, as soon as you said it, I cringed.
I was like oh God.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
We were really in trouble, so bad for the book.
The second one we used to takewe had a pontoon boat and we
would take the pontoon boat overto my aunt and uncle over by
assateague and we would take thegrill and then we would pick
them up and we would go out intothe bay.
One time we were going and oneof those storms came up I don't
know where, and we had to run upon the beach under the bridge
in ocean city.
Oh gosh, yes, and my mom wasfreaking out and lightning is

(49:44):
crashing all over everywhere andmy dad ran it up.
And then we had to run up andget under um the road, right
where the sinkhole was, as amatter of fact.
No wonder you're not scared ofdeath so, but then as we're
sitting up underneath the thehigh, we're under route 90
bridge like it's a pretty bighot.

(50:08):
Not, it's not big highway, butit's yes, it's the ocean city
expressway yes we're up under it.
The boat starts floating awaybecause he didn't run it up far
enough, so he goes running at mymom.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
He's running out and lightning is great and my mom
was freaking the fuck out.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Then the storm blows over because they only last like
five minutes.
Yeah, we get over to my auntand uncles.
We picked them up.
My uncle was Mr Weatherman, myuncle and I shared a birthday
and we were pretty much the samepeople.
Yes, that is true.

(50:49):
Yeah, 100% yes, picked them up,took them out on another one of
those storms.
I don't know how he didn't knowthese storms were going to kick
up, but I remember my daddriving that boat down that
lagoon at like as fast as thatmotherfucker would go, and the
grill was like tipping over, ohGod.
So that is why my sister yeah,that's fair and she tries so

(51:14):
hard.
But now if I see one coming,because I love to look at the
radar and stuff I'll text herand be like, do you see what's
coming?
And she'll be like, God damn it, yeah, she is.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
It's a shame.
I'm glad I'm not scared of thembecause I really enjoy them.
I don't want to be out in them,but I'm not scared of them,
because I really enjoy them.
I don't want to be out in them,no, but the house that I live
in.
Now I have hangovers Like myfront porch is covered, my back
patio is covered, my pool areais covered, so I can actually go
out and sit and be safe Rightand not get wet.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Although my mom always said that lightning was
going to come in through thewindows, did you ever hear that,
like balls of lightning, justcome rolling through your house?

Speaker 2 (52:01):
I think it's possible , but I don't know that.
I heard that, but I did alwaysLike reading this and them
saying that they were afraid thelightning would come through
the pipes.
I never knew that.
No one ever told me whylightning.
I was like is it going to comethrough this roof?
and get me, because we didn'thave a window in the bathroom.
So I was just like, how's itgoing to get me?

(52:23):
I was smart enough to know whatwas going to happen.
Pretty sure that's not going tohappen, but yeah, I don't
remember balls of lightningcoming into the house.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I remember people being concerned about balls of
lightning and it could just bemy mom because she was scared.
You know, everything was like abig deal.
Plus we get those weird, likecrazy ass thunderstorms.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
We do, yeah, they're awesome that are like.
They're awesome, I love them,wicked, and we're coming up on
that time of year, all right.
So my last one, real quick, isabout cracking your knuckles too
often.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I crack my knuckles constantly.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
You do and I never, ever did.
Just because I don't like bonescracking at all, like I can't
go to a chiropractor because itgrosses me out, people crack
their necks in public, I'm like,but anyway, but it's a myth.
So one of the things thatterrified Gen X's kids that
turned out to be no big deal wasthe fear that they develop an
illness or hurt their fingers bycracking their knuckles.

(53:22):
And although I didn't crack myknuckles, I was still scared of
it and that's probably a lot ofwhy I didn't do it.
However, according to expertslike rheumatologist Dr Eric
Ruderman, there's no associationbetween risks of arthritis or
any other long-term healthbenefits for cracking your

(53:45):
knuckles, and while parentsmight have condemned their kids
for cracking their knuckles andmaking unnecessary distractions,
dr Ruderman suggests it's aharmless habit that can even
spark some endorphins in peopleof all ages and reduce tension
and pain.
I think that's why I did it.
It was, yeah, my anxiety thingwas I chewed on my cuticles.

(54:05):
I didn't chew my nails, but Ichew my cuticles, and my mom
would smack me in the mouthevery time, which didn't help
with my anxiety.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
You know my cuticle weird I chew on the inside of my
mouth I have always been a nailbiter, but look how long they
are right now yeah I.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
You have gotten much better as you've grown older
with your nails.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
I remember when you had no, no, they were not like
bled all the time.
Yeah, they were bleeding.
I remember that I have gottenbetter about that.
I don't chew them as much.
I never really really chewedthem.
I picked them off.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I'm better with my cuticles, as long as they don't
get real dry, like if I get agood one there, I'm going to
make that bitch bleed.
Yeah, I can't, I'll pull themoff, I just can't.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Scabs.
I got to pick a scab.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
No, I don't do that.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Cracking my knuckles and, um, actually the muscle
relaxer does make me feel a lotbetter, but I, uh, the last two
days at work have been I, Ithink it's a pulled, it's not a
pulled muscle.
I don't really know what I did.
I think it happened when I wastrying to clean my refrigerator
out.
Being gen x, yeah it was we allI twisted the wrong way and
breathe too hard.
Yeah, so yesterday I did it onsunday yesterday was monday, oh,

(55:20):
I was at work and it was like Iwas fine if I was standing
still.
But every time I try to movebefore I just moved the wrong
way, it sent shooting pain everyall over, and yesterday it took
my breath away quite a fewtimes.
And the problem is is you haveto bend over so much and pick
stuff?
up and then today was today.

(55:41):
Well, today was even worse thanyesterday.
I had to take a couple breaks.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
I can't even imagine how bad it hurts your feelings
when you drop something funny,that you say that because this
morning I did drop my keys, likebecause we have these special
keys that open up um clusterboxes so I we get them.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Um, they hand them out in the morning.
You have to sign for them.
And, uh, I signed for mine andI turned around and they flung
out of my hand somehow and ontothe floor and I did and the line
is really long, so you can'tlike lollygag.
Yeah, you can't be a lollygagin there, and so I would just
like, and I ended up kickingthem like halfway across the

(56:25):
room get into an area where youcan take your time.
I can't, I can't pick thesefuckers up right now and my one
of my supervisors would walk byevery couple like 15 minutes or
so, and she'd be like, backstill hurt.
I'm like, don't talk to me.
I'm trying, I can't breathe, soI'm hoping that it will work

(56:48):
itself out.
I don't because, you know, inschool, when you had those desks
, I think we should have beenable.
Yeah, yeah, I say I didn't crackanything, but I did do those
desks with the thing it was theperfect table that was attached
and you could get and it wouldhit just exactly the right spot,

(57:08):
although I will say that'sprobably about the spot that's
always hurt me my whole life.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
So I don't think it was.
I mean, I don't know, but Iwould.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
I might even pay money to get one of those desks
again, just for real I don't goto a chiropractor because I say
they're witch doctors same.
That's freaky I don't like no,thanks I agree, I don't like to
be touched, I don't get massages, I don't want nobody.
No, I don't even want people Iknow touching me.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
That's why I don't touch you.
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Then you have cooties .
I do have cooties, notcurrently, yeah, so I am big on
cracking knuckles, toes like thefallout.
I just crack my toes, I didalways crack my big toes.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
That was an anxiety thing but I've outgrown that.
But I do still crack thecartilage in my ears.
I'll just like push on themlike this and I don't even
realize it I never knew youcould do that.
You probably can't normally,but I've been doing it my whole
life.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
I don't think I can I crunch when I push on them.
I know that sometimes myshoulder will pop.
But aren't all these thingsjust us getting old?
Some of?

Speaker 2 (58:19):
them.
Yeah, my ears have alwayscracked.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
I can wiggle my ears.
I can't.
I can wiggle my ears.
I can touch my tongue to mynose.
I can't.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I can turn my tongue upside down, I can do that?
Can you curl your tongue?

Speaker 1 (58:34):
No.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
My mom turn my tongue upside down.
I can do that.
Can you curl your tongue?
No, my mom can't either.
I can't cross my eyes.
Nope, I just said it.
I can't do anything weird withmy eyebrows, so my sister and I
both can wiggle our ears.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
My mom can't, my dad can't, so I don't know, maybe we
don't belong to either one ofthem.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
That wouldn't surprise me um she can.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
She can do hers independently wow mine, both
wiggle at the same timeimpressive.
Yeah, she's good she's good.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
She's good at wiggling her ears.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
I'm trying to think of what else?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
what other fear?
Yeah, so I'm trying.
There was one that I actuallywanted to put in here and I
didn't, and now I kind of wish Idid, so I'm just going to bring
it up, with no knowledge,really, of what I'm talking
about, but, um, it was our fearof barracudas and piranhas okay,
uh-huh, I do have my dad mademe figure out, because we, why
doesn't that?

(59:30):
Surprise me we had.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
My uncle had a condo in Florida and it was a private
beach because he was fancy, muchfancier than he.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Anyway, he couldn't afford it, so we would go down.
He just wanted to be fancy.
Yeah, he was.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
He had this place and so we would go down a couple
times a year and it had aprivate beach, and so we would
go down a couple times a yearand it had a private beach and
so we would go snorkeling allthe time.
My sister again got chased byBarracuda all the time.
I don't know why they pickedher, but she did scream and come
running out for Barracuda allthe time.

(01:00:13):
So in our family Barracuda isis an actual real.
I don't think they've tried tobite her or anything I think
they're just doing barracuda.
Well, what?

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
I read, was, um, that well, yes, it could happen, and
there was a movie that came outin 1978 called, uh, piranha,
which didn't help anything, andI do remember that movie.
Um, but piranha typically, um,they're in very specific areas
in, like south america and theytend to attack, like, uh,

(01:00:43):
animals.
And I mean, when are humansreally?
Even, it said, even fishermenwho fish waters that have
piranha don't care about piranhawe had we had piranha for a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
I knew I had knew somebody that had a pet.
Piranha we had.
We had piranha for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
I knew I had knew somebody that had a pet, piranha
we had.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
My husband does aquarium maintenance and we
always end up with the like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Somebody wants them like oh, that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Oh, no, wait, yeah, so we had they don't, you can
stick your hand in there.
I mean, if they're hungry,they'll bite you, but any of the
freaking clownfish we haveright now will bite your finger
I had a very um, aggressivecichlid, yes, when I was married
to my ex and that thing I mean,it would.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
I'm surprised it didn't knock itself out hitting
the glass, trying to attack youyeah like it was really mean.
But um, and then barracudas areonly eat like small fish, like
there's no way they would tacklea human.
They are, and that's where alot of the folklore comes from,
with them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
I think so.
I think that because they justgot a mouthful of teeth, they
look like a deep water fish andthey're very fast and yeah, we,
we would go.
You know, to be honest, I don'treally remember seeing too many
other kinds of fish besides thebarracuda.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
But I don't.
I felt like you would havebarracuda and piranha stories
because you grew up near thewater and your dad's a dick a
lot of the time.
So, I figured you would havesome sort of Gen X fear.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
He made us go when we would go to the Keys a lot too.
We spent a lot of time inFlorida.
I don't you did, yeah, I don'tknow why.
Um, nothing else to do, thankyou my dad really like, really
like snorkeling, um yeah, and hewould make us go and I remember
I didn't.
I'm not.
I'm not a big fan of the ocean.

(01:02:32):
To begin with, even as a alittle kid, I mean, I went in,
but once I started to not beforced to the beach on my own, I
stopped going.
I don't really go.
Well, you don't like the sun?
I don't like the sun, I don'tlike sand, I don't like the
ocean.
It has to be like stupid warm.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I'll go in at the end of September and that is it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
It's got to be warm Bathtub, but then you only go in
like two feet because there'ssharks, because there's sharks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
I know what's in there and I'm not trying to get
bit by no damn shark, and I knowthat they're not trying to eat
me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
But but if you bump into them they might be like
bitch.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Times are tough for sharks too.
You know they need you freakinghammerhead in the bay that they
had?
They saw they come and laytheir little babies in there and
great whites are getting realclose to this area you should
get the um.
Have you ever seen the o search?

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
I think so.
Is that the one around oceancity?

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
no, it's, they tag them all over everywhere.
Oh, it's called o search andthey tag sharks specifically,
but they tag, oh, turtles too,sea turtles.
Um, my uncle that lived over byastig um, they were out fishing
one day and something reallybig went under their boat and uh
, they were telling me about itand I was like, oh you know, and

(01:03:49):
there was one of the real biggreat whites in the area and it
had gone, it had gone.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Oh my god, I would shit my yeah it had gone under
their boat yeah, they, they,they not just around here.
They get way too close to theshore.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Now they do well, they're running out of food
we're eating all their food, sothat you know we deserve to get
bit by sharks because we do stopeating their goddamn food, yeah
, or stay out of the ocean.
Exactly, you're not gonna getbit by a shark on land.
They don't come up that way,they don't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Usually, although have you ever seen them?
The other guys?

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
With Will Ferrell and Marky Mark.
No, that's one of the things.
Marky Mark keeps bullying WillFerrell, their cops, and Will
Ferrell turns it on him and hewas like what?
Your tiger is going to come getmy shark.
My shark will evolve and learn.
You know, we might not be ableto stay on land for long maybe

(01:04:45):
you know 10, 20, 30 minutes butwe'll get there and we'll create
a chain and we'll come andwe'll kill your family.
So I guess in Will Ferrell'smind it's possible.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
I'm trying to think if I've ever seen a shark In
real life In real life, Like inthe wild Right right.
I have seen sand sharks.
We've caught sand sharks.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
I've caught sharks, but just like the little two,
three foot ones.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
I've never seen anything big.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
And even those scare me.
They're pretty mean, meanlooking.
They are mean, that's, that'sall them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Teeth, yeah, and their eyes are kind of weird
because they're the only oneswith um.
They have very hollow eyes andthey they're the only fish that
have a.
They can close their eyelids orhave eyelids or something.
Yeah, interesting.
Yeah, I love great white.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
I love a great white is like my favorite shark shark
week is my favorite week of thewhole year I love the great
whites.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
They call them the men and um, in california
surfers, they call them the menin the gray suits.
So when they are out surfingthey'll say the men in the gray
suits are out and they'll allleave.
That's like a.
That's kind of neat.
So if you're in californiaswimming and a bunch of surfers
are talking about men in graysuits, get out of the water, get
out immediately yeah, that wasgood.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, yep, I hope I didn'ttrigger anyone back into any old
fears you had forgotten about,but I think I diluted them all
for you so you don't have toworry anymore I don't gotta
worry about any of them.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Plus, I mean really how many of us are going to any
of these places and exactly wecan't fucking afford anything
anymore exactly oh, so I saidalready that you should um to
our socials like share ratereview.
Find us where you listen topodcasts YouTube.

(01:06:44):
I haven't put anything new upon YouTube.
I don't think we're on theTickety Talk Forever long that's
going to be around.
Is that going away again?
I don't know, I don't payattention.
You know what, if I get thisnew phone, I don't know if I can
get TikTok on it, because Idon't think you can have TikTok
anymore.
If you already had it, you cankeep it, but I think when you

(01:07:05):
get a new phone, you can't getit anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
That's crazy, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
I'll have to figure that out.
I'm just going to die withoutTikTok.
Anyway, that's my fear.
No TikTok.
Whatever will I do, and you cansend us an email to
likewhateverpod at gmailcom.
Or don't Like whatever,whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Bye, bye.